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Australians find that giving cash instead of buying presents to younger family members is more welcomed on special occasions.
In China, giving young family members cash enclosed in a red envelope during the Spring Festival is a time-honored tradition. As the Chinese New Year becomes more popular in Australia, giving cash to younger family members is no longer a unique Chinese custom.
Nowadays, a growing number of Australian parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts also give cash to younger family members as a way of showing their love on special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas.
May Colbourne, a 72-year-old Australian woman living in Sydney, has always given her grandchildren money as Christmas presents and the amount of money depends on each child's age.
Joe Blacksmith, who is a grandfather of three children, not only gave cash as presents to his grandchildren, but also gave money to his two sons, both aged in their mid-40s.
Blacksmith says this is a better way because he didn't have to spend a lot of time going to different shops and buying presents during the busy Christmas shopping period.
welcomed adj. 受欢迎的,类似popular。很多人经常搞混be welcomed和be welcome,不知该怎么区分。简言之,be welcomed = 受欢迎,be welcome = 不用谢,别客气。
例句:
If you have a tendency to drop F bombs, you will not be welcomed in my house. Seriously, I cannot stand foul language. (如果你经常爆粗口,我家不欢迎你。说真的,我无法容忍脏话。)
You are welcome to come in and browse. We won’t force you to buy anything. (你尽管进来随便看看,别客气。我们不会强迫你买东西的。)
red envelope n. 红包 也叫red packet
time-honored adj. 历史悠久的
例句:
Homecoming is a time-honored tradition in the United States. (校友返校在美国是由来已久的传统。)
When it comes to Peking duck, Quanjude is undoubtedly a time-honored brand. You will be hard-pressed to find anyone in China who hasn’t heard of it. (要说北京烤鸭,全聚德绝对是老字号。你恐怕很难在中国找到一个没听说过全聚德的人。)
unique adj. 独一无二的 这是个误用率极高的单词,无论是英语学习者还是英语母语者都会不自觉地用表示程度的副词去形容unique,比如quite unique,very unique,more unique等等。切记,这些统统是错误的。独一无二就是独一无二,所以某人或某物要么unique,要么不unique,没有中间地带。
例句:
There’s no denying that Eason Chan is a fantastic singer, but honestly, he does not have a unique voice. Just off the top of my head, mainland singer Li Ronghao and lead singer of the Hong Kong band Mr. both sound eerily similar to Chan. (无可否认,陈奕迅是一名非常优秀的歌手。但说句实话,他的声线并不是独一无二的。我能立刻想到的例子就包括大陆歌手李荣浩和香港乐队Mr.的主音歌手,他们听起来都跟陈奕迅如出一辙。)
spend time doing something v. 花时间做某事,spend time和doing something之间省略了介词。有不少人纠结于这个介词究竟是on还是in的问题,说实话没有必要,因为学术界没有定论。比如:I spend time on/in making sure that I correct my own mistakes. (我花时间确保我改正自己的错误。) 两者都不错,而且也很难说哪个更地道。所以我建议大家干脆省略介词,一劳永逸。